Ministry of the Interior and Safety Provides 38.6 Billion KRW in Firefighting Grants... Support for Multipurpose Firefighting Helicopters and Firefighting Aerial Platforms

Firefighting Helicopter 32.3 Billion KRW, Firefighting High-Altitude Vehicle 700 Million KRW, Pedestrian Environment Improvement 5.6 Billion KRW Support

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 15th that it will support 38.6 billion KRW from the Fire Safety Grant Tax for special demands in the fire and safety sector in 2023, including 32.3 billion KRW to introduce multipurpose fire helicopters to strengthen the life-saving and wildfire response capabilities of provinces and cities.

The support amount for fire helicopters is the largest since the Fire Safety Grant Tax support began in 2017, with funding for the introduction of 4 new helicopters (including 1 leased) and 3 continuing helicopters next year. This is to support the introduction of multipurpose fire helicopters with enhanced initial firefighting capabilities, triggered by large wildfires that occurred this year in the Gyeongbuk and Gangwon regions. To this end, the support amount from the Fire Safety Grant Tax will be increased from a maximum of 11.5 billion KRW to up to 25 billion KRW (15 billion KRW for medium-sized, 25 billion KRW for large helicopters) to allow the introduction of large helicopters with large water capacity for rapid initial firefighting in the early stages of wildfires or fires.

Accordingly, Gyeongbuk Province plans to introduce large helicopters with a water capacity of over 8,000 liters by 2026 (considering production time), and Gangwon Province plans to change the fire helicopters it was planning to introduce to multipurpose helicopters with over 3,000 liters capacity and introduce them by 2025. Busan and Incheon, which have been supported for fire helicopter introduction costs since 2021, are expected to deploy fire helicopters on site next year, the third year, and Chungnam Province will receive support for the second year, while Gyeonggi Province will begin support for replacing two aging helicopters operated since 2001. In addition, to minimize the gap before the introduction of multipurpose fire helicopters in Gangwon Province, up to 1 billion KRW annually (for up to 3 years) will be supported for helicopter leasing costs.

Among special cities, Changwon City, which is handling fire prevention and suppression tasks on a trial basis, will receive support for the introduction cost of a fire ladder truck (ladder truck over 68 meters). Triggered by the fire at a mixed-use apartment complex in Ulsan City in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has been supporting 50% of the introduction cost (up to 700 million KRW) for cities and provinces without fire ladder trucks since 2021 to respond to fires in high-rise buildings.

Changwon City, with a population of 1.04 million, has 109 high-rise buildings over 30 floors and has experienced 22 high-rise building fires in the past five years, so support was decided. If a fire ladder truck is introduced to Changwon City next year, fire ladder trucks will be deployed in all 18 fire headquarters nationwide (17 cities/provinces and Changwon City).

To create a pedestrian-centered traffic safety environment rather than vehicle-centered, 5.6 billion KRW from the Fire Safety Grant Tax will also be supported for maintenance projects in pedestrian traffic accident vulnerable areas around residential zones. Up to 3 billion KRW per maintenance zone will be supported within 50% of the project cost, and the target projects will be finally selected by the end of November 2022 through demand surveys by cities and provinces and joint public-private reviews.

Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min said, "We will strengthen the disaster response capabilities of cities and provinces by expanding support for field-centered firefighting equipment such as fire helicopters and fire ladder trucks," and added, "We hope that the pedestrian environment maintenance projects, supported for the first time from next year, will help spread a culture of traffic safety."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.